Recent improvements in the spatial resolution of commercial satellite imagery make it possible to apply very high resolution (VHR) satellite data for assessing structural damage in the aftermath of humanitarian crises such as armed conflicts. Visual interpretation of pre- and post-crisis very high resolution satellite imagery is the most straightforward method for discriminating structural damage and assessing its extent. However, the feasibility of using visual interpretation alone diminishes in the cases of large and dense urban settlements and spatial resolutions in the range 2-3m and greater. Visual interpretation can be further complicated at spatial resolutions greater than 1m if accompanied by shadow formation and differences in senor and solar conditions between the pre- and post-conflict images.
In this study, we address these problems, through investigating the use of traditional change techniques, namely image differencing and principle component analysis, with an object-oriented image classification software, e-Cognition. Pre-conflict Ikonos (2m resolution) images of Jenin in the Palestinian territories and Brest (1m resolution) in FYROM were classified using the e-Cognition software. Thereafter, the pre-conflict classification was used to guide the classification, using e-Cognition, of the pixel-based change detection analysis. The second part of the study examines the feasibility of using mathematical morphological operators to automatically identify likely structurally damaged zones in dense urban settings. The overall results are promising and show that object-oriented segmentation and classification systems facilitate the interpretation of change detection results derived from very high resolution (1m and 2m) commercial satellite data. The results show that object-oriented classification techniques enhance quantitative analysis of traditional pixel-based change detection applied to very high resolution satellite data and facilitate the interpretation of changes in urban features. Finally, the results suggest that mathematical morphological methods are a potential new avenue for automatically extracting likely damaged zones from very high resolution satellite imagery in the aftermath of disasters.